Step 1: take out the ink

I found a a really old sheaffer pen at home which isn't working now. You are actually supposed to use a cartridge for it but I don't have them so I tried filling the pen with ink after unscrewing it. Would this work? Or I have to use cartridge only? Cant I just fill ink? And its really old would soaking in water help? Should I just dip the whole pen in water?

I have always liked fountain pens ever since my first year of high school when Schaeffer brought out a clear plastic cartridge fountain pen that sold for one dollar. That close to 50 years ago.
Flushing out the inking system as you describe cures a lot of fountain pen ills, but not all of them by a long shot. About 95% of fountain pen problems, such as poor ink flow or burping ink onto the paper, are due to a poor fit between the nib and the feeder. That allows air to get in where air should not be getting in. I have thought about doing an Instructable on how to restore nib to feeder fit, and some other things related to making a pen write well.

Please do the instructable about restoring nib to feeder fit! Please!!!<br /> <br /> I&nbsp;have two beloved pens that I&nbsp;suspect have an issue with that fit and I&nbsp;want to restore them to the rotation soon. Many would welcome your tutorial!<br />

Actually, I did it.&nbsp; What you want is in step 7 of this<a href="http://www.instructables.com/id/Fountain_Pen_Problems/" rel="nofollow"> Instructable</a>.&nbsp; From what I read, 95% of all fountain pen problems are due to poor fit between the nib and the feeder.&nbsp; Thanks. <br />

I made some changes in the Instructable linked above. Step 7 is now step 8.

Thanks for the advice.

This is an awesome tutorial in that I am now aware that the aversion to throwing away "dead" pens was just my way of waiting to find this instructional and fix those previously lost bic medium rounds i love so much!